In December 2010 the Committee published a report into Public Expenditure (Second Report of Session 2010–11, HC 512). The Report concluded that the October 2010 Spending Review had set a highly challenging context for the delivery of health and social care services in the period to 2014, with both sectors being asked to make significant and difficult efficiency gains.
The Committee returned to the subject in its inquiry to evaluate progress towards reaching the 4% year-on-year efficiency gains required of the NHS by the ‘Nicholson Challenge’, and to assess the ability of adult social care services to meet the demands made upon them. The Committee was supported in its inquiry by a National Audit Office study of plans being made by NHS bodies to enable them to meet the Nicholson Challenge, and the results of its own survey of local authority funding of social care.